Capturing the World Through His Lens
“If Not Now, When?”
Entrepreneur, photographer, artist, world traveler. Meet Lou Bucelli, a man of many interests, talents and accomplishments. And he’s proud to have captured thousands of images from around the globe, many of wildlife such as polar bears in the wild in Manitoba, Canada; penguins in the Antarctic; wolves and coyotes in Montana and Wyoming; moose and grizzly bears in Alaska and Hawaii, to name just a few.
“I’ve traveled to all seven continents and about 80 countries,” shared the 73-year-old Bucelli, who resides in Highland Beach, Florida.
Bucelli is CEO of LimeBox Networks in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, a business-class phone service utility. They serve businesses throughout South Jersey and across the country.
Entrepreneur
Over the course of his four-decade-long career, Bucelli launched about 10 different businesses. In recent years, he has scaled back on his entrepreneurial endeavors and dedicated much of his time to traveling the world, camera and lenses in tow. His extensive travel picked up speed following a life-altering health scare in 2022. But his passion for working with young, enthusiastic people hasn’t wavered. “I love talking to young people and helping them fulfill their dreams and aspirations,” said Bucelli. “I love their enthusiasm about starting businesses.”
“People who have business ideas seem to find me,” continued Bucelli. “My particular skill is getting the right people in the right spots and helping them see that they can create something bigger. People who are really smart and invent things are really good at that, but they can’t always see the value of their creation.”
For decades, as managing partner of the Cherry Hill-based Bucelli & Company LLC, he worked with a wide array of teams to transform ideas into successful businesses—from inception through fruition. “My mantra always was: ‘The money comes when the money comes, but you’ve got to love what you do and then the money will come,’” he said.
His entrée into the realm of entrepreneurship began in the early 1980s. Bucelli was searching for a job but wasn’t quite sure what his exact niche would be. “I was hired as a consultant by a group of men who were developing long-term care centers and real estate,” he said. Bucelli continued working for them while earning his master’s degree in finance from Drexel University. Though he wasn’t particularly passionate about their area of expertise, one of the men suggested that he could do the same type of thing on his own. “He convinced me to break out on my own,” remembered Bucelli.
Pioneering Idea, A Man Before His Time
Around 1990, Bucelli met a group of men who had an idea to start a medical education company by videotaping major conferences across the country, including Mayo Clinic, Cleveland Clinic, Johns Hopkins and many others. “At the time, the only way doctors could expand their medical education was to attend conferences in person,” said Bucelli, who assembled a team that included two physicians, video and marketing experts and himself. “We would send a crew and videotape about 40 hours of a conference.” They would return to Cherry Hill and clean up and edit the tape for sale and distribution. That pioneering endeavor that was launched from the basement of Bucelli’s Cherry Hill condo became CME Information Services and operated until 1998. “We grew from a few employees to 150 and were number 27 on the Inc. 500 list,” said Bucelli.
In 1998, Bucelli also sold a dot.com business and was asked to work with Drexel University to develop an incubator of sorts in Camden, New Jersey. He had previously worked for the University City Science Center. “An incubator is where small businesses go to help themselves grow,” explained Bucelli, who helped entrepreneurs take their inventions and ideas and turn them into successful ventures. He worked in this capacity for Drexel University from 2002-2011 and in a similar position with Temple University from 2011-2021. Bucelli observed that often people don’t start businesses because they’re afraid of the risk. “True entrepreneurs don’t see this as a risk but rather as a potential regret,” he said.
Bucelli, who grew up in Norristown, Pennsylvania, shared that his parents both dropped out of high school to work in the factories. “I was the first person on both sides of my family to go to college,” he said. After graduating from Temple University in 1975, he moved to South Jersey. He lived in various towns over the years, including Blackwood, Audubon, Cherry Hill and Voorhees. He also lived in Center City Philadelphia before making Florida his permanent home in 2014.
Bucelli’s interest in photography began as a teenager at the former Bishop Kenrick High School in Norristown. “I had always been an artist,” explained Bucelli, “painting, drawing, sketching.” So, joining the high school photography club seemed a natural choice. “I took a lot of photos of sporting events and spent time developing those images in the darkroom.” His passion for photography evolved over time, as did his love of travel.
World Traveler
When Bucelli turned 60, he started traveling more. “I got to the point in my life where I could see the end of the runway. I wanted to start doing some things,” he said. Those things included taking more and more photographs from around the world, with a particular focus on animals in the wild. He began posting photos on Facebook and Instagram. “My hashtag was 10,000 days,” he said. “This was the number of days between being 60 and the age my dad died at 89. We don’t live forever.”
It was that reality and acknowledging his own mortality that became top of mind following a 2022 health scare. As a result, Bucelli’s thirst for travel escalated further. He also adopted the “if not now, when?” philosophy, which continues to be a driving force in his life. And that philosophy became a hashtag on his social media.
Life-Altering Health Scare
In February 2022, Bucelli visited his doctor for a routine annual check-up. He had been having some stomach issues in the past, so the exam included an ultrasound of his abdomen. When he received a phone call shortly after the appointment that there was a problem, he was stunned. “There was a 5.6-centimeter solid mass on my right kidney, which they suspected was renal cell carcinoma,” recalled Bucelli, who thought he would be immediately prepped for surgery. Instead, he was told to take a previously scheduled ski trip and return in April for the procedure.
“This was all in the middle of COVID,” recalled Bucelli. The surgery, at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, was partially robotic. “They removed my right kidney and confirmed the diagnosis,” he said. “I was discharged the next day.” Because that initial ultrasound had detected the mass early, there was no need for further treatment, such as radiation or chemotherapy. Bucelli has had regular scans and been cancer-free for several years. He feels incredibly fortunate that it was found early.
Suffice it to say, Bucelli’s outlook on life was dramatically altered. He appreciates each and every day, and travel remains a high priority. When he was younger, running businesses and raising a family (his sons are now 40, 37 and 34), he said he didn’t have the time or strong inclination for travel.
“I’ve been to a lot of countries and learned a lot,” said Bucelli. His travels have taken him to Turkey, Cuba, China, Russia, Italy, Panama, Columbia, Scottland and many more destinations. “I’ve discovered things about different cultures and food,” he said. “When I’ve traveled to third-world countries, it made me realize how fortunate I am.”
After the pandemic, he and his youngest son, Michael Bucelli, visited practically every national park in the United States, including in Alaska and Hawaii. They photographed volcanoes, wildlife, coyotes, bison and wolves.
Last summer, for the first time, Bucelli visited Sciacca, Sicily. The historic fishing port was the hometown of his maternal grandparents. “I saw the house where they lived,” said Bucelli who was overwhelmed with emotion from the experience.
And in January, he visited the Galapágos Islands, where he photographed seals, sea turtles and giant tortoises. He’s planning a summer trip with Michael to Katmai National Park and Preserve in Alaska, where they’ll take photographs of grizzly bears “up close and personal.”
“There’s something very satisfying about taking photographs of wildlife,” said Bucelli, who often finds himself as close as five feet away from his subject matter. Studying a world map, Bucelli is contemplating where his next trip will be.
